Armies of Liberation

The AQAP CF in Abyan continues:

Yemenat: New enhancements to the supporters of al-Qaeda in Abyan

According to local sources in the city of Jaar, in Abyan province, south of Yemen, the city witnessed the arrival of new fighters and additional military reinforcements to support the armed groups that are believed to belong to al Qaeda.

The sources pointed out that the military buildup, which includes a large number of fighters who are nationals of various Asian, African and combat equipment, and arrived to the province of Abyan by sea in the coastal city of Shakra, which is still controlled by armed elements in their hands since the fall several months ago. (Read on …)

Its really sad. The kidnapping of the three French aid workers, the dust up with the French ambassador and other incidents, after France expressed support for the revolution, is reminiscent of the two pedestrian suicide attacks on the British ambassador’s convoy after the UK made statements about the uprising in the south. An insider says the attack on the US Embassy was conceived by the security forces. While this all may seem a stretch for those who think it is a normal government, the Saleh regime’s utter lack of morality and rationality does not preclude the deployment of Islamic extremists as a extension of foreign policy as it is already an extension of domestic policy, for example deploying al Qaeda during the Saada War against the Houthis and residents.

Maritime Security Asia: [NMS: It seems that the mystery surrounding the whereabouts and status of the French yacht has been solved, sadly with a tragic outcome, with EU NAVFOR playing a key role in the interdiction of the attackers and rescue of the remaining crew. There are still rumours of another French yacht going missing at around the same time, although these have yet to be completely confirmed and have been denied by Yemeni authorities. The story illustrates the confusion that can result with pirate attack reports as well as illustrating the desperate measures some pirate gangs are resorting to.]

MARSEILLE – Pirates who attacked a yacht in the Gulf of Aden killed its French skipper before abandoning it, a close to the family said Sunday, the day after the dead man’s wife was found unharmed.

Christian and Evelyne Colombo’s family was informed overnight that the 55-year-old was killed during the attack and his body thrown overboard before their catamaran was found abandoned on Thursday, the same said.

A German warship found the couple’s catamaran, the Tribal Kat, adrift in waters off Yemen on Thursday after it broadcast a mayday appeal for help.

There were signs of struggle, including bullet holes and blood stains, and no one was on board, prompting commanders from the EU’s anti-piracy naval task force Atalanta to launch an air and sea search for the attackers.

This may or may not be true or pure propaganda or the distortion of an event that occurred. The Yemeni government claims it thwarted a maritime suicide bombing attempt:

Yemen Online: Suicide maritime attack foiled: SANAA — Yemen’s navy has foiled a suicide bomb attack on one of its warships off the coast of the Al Qaeda stronghold of Abyan province in the south, the defence ministry said on its Internet site on Sunday.

“A small high-speed boat tried to approach one of our warships on Saturday at around 21:00 hours local time (1800 GMT)” off Abyan, navy chief Rear Admiral Ruiss Abdullah Mujawar was quoted as saying on the 26sep.net site.

The vessel continued on its course despite warning shots being fired, and “naval forces then fired at the craft, which sank along with its occupants,” he said.

The defence ministry said the small boat had been filled with explosives, but gave no information on those thought to have been behind the failed attack.

The shipment of weapons is par for the course. Yemeni weapons shipments to Somalia are a leading cause of its instability and have been ongoing for years. The last shipment doesn’t necessarily show that AQAP and al Shabab are linked up in a new level of coordination; what it likely shows is that UN sanctioned weapons dealer Fares Manna is back in business. Its a very complicated relationship, check my category “Proliferation” or search “Fares Manna” for the chapter of the story about the shipload of Chinese weapons brought into Yemen with forged documents from the Defense Ministry. See Evaluating relations between Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda for a review of the rhetorical and physical support between al Shabab and AQAP, including the arrest of Warsame. For earlier, see the 2006 arrest of eight westerners in Yemen (all later released) who were smuggling weapons to the fanatics in Somalia and the connection of Awlaki to those persons, who are hopefully all under the microscope now. Rahm’s report below seems to be from Sun Times: U.S intercepts ship suspected of carrying weapons for Al-Shabaab

Terror Free Somalia: The U.S Navy has intercepted a Somalia bound Yemeni cargo ship carrying weapons suspected to be for Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab militia.Somalia consulate in Yemen said the cargo ship en route from Yemen to Somalia coastline ended up in the hands of U.S Navy at the Gulf of Aden.The Somali consul Hussein Hajji Ahmed said U.S navy opened fire on the ship after the ship captain defied Navy orders to stop the vessel but later surrender to the United States navy.

He added that the ship is suspected of carrying military supplies for the Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia, a clear indication that Yemeni Al-Qaeda supports the militia in terms of weaponry.Ahmed said investigations into the issue are currently underway.He urged the Somali government to boost security along the country’s coastlines and seek supports from the neighbouring countries in making sure that no arms are illegally smuggled into the country through the coastal areas.The U.S has recently received critical information suggesting that Yemeni based Al-Qaeda network provides weapons and other military necessities to Somalia’s Al-Shabaab insurgents fighting the Somali government.

LAT

Reporting from Washington— Al Qaeda’s powerful branch in Yemen has provided weapons, fighters and training with explosives over the last year to a militant Islamic group battling for power in Somalia, according to newly developed American intelligence, raising concerns of a widening alliance of terrorist groups.

Leaders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen also have urged members of the hard-line Shabab militia to attack targets outside Africa for the first time, said U.S. officials who were briefed on the intelligence.

The information, they said, comes in part from a Somali militant who was captured en route from Yemen to Somalia and interrogated aboard a U.S. warship before being arraigned in New York on terrorism charges this month. Further intelligence was gleaned from detailed digital files found at Osama bin Laden’s hide-out in Pakistan after he was killed in May. (Read on …)

A bunch of overdue AQAP links and articles: First, business as usual: Sadiq al Ahmar said 16 of the recent al Qaeda escapees are living in villas in Sanaa, and other al Qaeda members are in the counter-terror forces, Republican Guard and Central Security. Its typical; we listed names of some of the AQ in the CT forces some years ago. Its well documented that other al Qaeda terrorists receive no-show salaries from the army or intelligence forces. The regime spun it as “rehabilitation,” until they needed a deniable proxy. The US dismissed them as “militants” but now the US is droning “militants” with no clear affiliation to al Qaeda or any transnational terror organization.

Yesterday, in an interview with Al Sheba, about what promoted the power of “the existence of al-Qaeda in Yemen”, Shekh Sadiq al Ahmar stressed that the so-called al-Qaeda elements are out of the house of the presidency and they exist in an anti-terrorist forces and the Republican Guard and the Central Security, noting that 16 members of Al Qaeda leaders who fled from the prison of Al-Mukalla month the past, “present in the villas in the capital alone to them the system in it.” He added, “The system uses the al-Qaeda bogeyman to extort from the Gulf, and promoted himself to America.”

Second, Shabab fighter Ahmed Warsame, arrested in the Gulf, was brought to the US for trial. Warsame has ties to both AQAP and al Shabab and met Anwar. Awlaki has been pimping al Qaeda to the Somalis since (at least) 2006 when the eight westerners were arrested trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia from Yemen. The enmeshment between al Qaeda in Yemen and al Shabab was politically inconvenient prior to the rev and is an expedient sound bite now.

NYT 7/10: In his remarks on his plane, Mr. Panetta said there were greater dangers to the United States in Yemen. “There’s no question when you look at what constitutes the biggest threat in terms of attacks on the United States right now, more of that comes from Yemen and people like Awlaki,” he said. He added that in Yemen, “There are a number of operations that are being conducted not only by the Defense Department, but by my former agency to try to focus on going after those targets. I would say that’s one of our top priorities right now.”

Fox News: The Somali terror suspect transferred this week to a New York City federal court spent “significant time” with American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a U.S. official told Fox News. (Read on …)

NATO disputes the claim saying there’s no evidence; Yemen has many islands including Perim, which is in the middle of the Bab al Mendab. Somali pirates have long received logistical assistance, intelligence and other support from Yemeni authorities and citizens.

Euro news: LONDON (Reuters) – Somali pirates have been using Yemen’s remote Horn of Africa island of Socotra as a refuelling hub enabling their attack craft to stay restocked for longer periods at sea and pose a greater hazard to shipping, maritime sources say.
(Read on …)

May be??? Piracy has been facilitated from Yemen for a long time. The presence of Yemeni pirates is little compared with the intelligence assistance, logistical and supplies from Yemen.

Red Sea piracy may be going multinational – U.S.
Reuters; LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) – Piracy in the Red Sea may be becoming a “multinational” business with Yemenis joining Somalis in the lucrative crime, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. (Read on …)

No link, sorry, it kinda looked like a news site but then it didn’t. The most senior foreign fighter in al Shabab was the now deceased Yemeni AQAP Rajah abu Khalid. Update: Rahm has the same story, unsurprisingly. Update 2, Garowe: Officials with the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) claimed that a Yemeni-born foreign fighter named Rabah Abu-Qalid was killed during heavy clashes Sunday in Mogadishu…The group has close links to Al Qaeda has brought foreign fighters to southern Somalia to provide training with military tactics, explosives and suicide bombings, which were alien to Somalia’s anarchy before 2006. The foreign fighters in Somalia number 300 to 1,200, according to Somali and U.S. intelligence estimates. Most are from neighboring countries such as Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen.

The militant commander, who was named Rajah Abu Khalid, a Yemen national, was reported that he was seriously wounded with 13 other fighters and was taken to an Alshabab medical facility in Jowhar district, 90kms from the north of Mogadishu.

Martyr Rajah Abu Khalid, succumbed in Jowhar hospital last night, he died several hours later when he was wounded said an Alshabab sources in conditions of anonymity. (Read on …)

In “The Privateers of Yemen,” Foreign Policy mag thoroughly plagiarizes my earlier article Yemen sells Coast Guard services and Navy personnel to highest bidder. I never have a problem with people using my database, that’s why its here. It would be very simple to close it off to the public and I don’t. But rewriting my article, using all the same links, without contacting me is just tacky tacky tacky. If she had written to me for additional insights, like everyone else does when they want to use my research, then I could have informed her of what Chapter 2 was (ie- what happened after I published the original article) but unfortunately she missed it entirely, and her article is incorrect or at least not current. Oh well. But at least the story is out there, again.

The family of Third Officer Wagdi Akram wants to bury him in his homeland with dignity and ceremony of mourning. Its a small thing to ask. The man is dead already and they need his body before it begins to rot. There are several accounts of how Mr. Akram died, each more horrific than the next, but “suicide” doesn’t seem likely. The ship was high jacked by Somali pirates in March. Nine Yemenis are among the captive sailors. The family’s statement today follows the HOOD’s press release yesterday indicating the pirates threatened to sell the hostages’ kidneys and eyes if they don’t get the $ 1 million in ransom. Read the text of HOOD’s statement here. Update: Yemen Times article here.

Adania family calls for President to intervene to release the body of her son from the hands of Somali pirates
The life of Aden / special

Family appealed the citizens “Akram Mohsen,” President of the Republic to intervene promptly and urgently to release the “body” son “and my grandfather,” who was killed by Somali pirates late last month after the abduction of the vessel in which it operates off the coast of Ahwar governorate of Abyan. (Read on …)

Its Naba News, so its hard to say, but its the third report in the last months. And who knows if they stay in Somalia or move on.

According to sources familiar with the “news News” that the information received by the security forces during the past two days revealed the flight of a group of al Qaeda in Yemen towards the African coast, after coordination with elements of the “youth movement” Somali, weighted by their move to Somalia. (Read on …)

In Feb, 2009, the French were earlier talking about an anti-piracy base on the island.

WT: The Yemeni Coast Guard said it was building a base in the Bab Al Mandab strait, a target of Somali pirates. On June 27, the coast guard said the base was located on the Miyoun island and would protect commercial shipping that links Asia and Europe. (Read on …)

This is good. The Border Guard and the Coast Guard regularly duke it out when the Coast Guard interrupts the Border Guards’ smuggling. The president’s nephew reportedly had a private dock set up to receive shipments of drugs and the UN found most of the illegal gun shipments depart from the Mukalla area, but now that Faris Manna was designated by the UN as a illegal weapons smuggler, I’m sure all that will end. At the same time, the services of the Yemeni Coast Guard are being sold to private shipping firms for protection against pirates, which must make them in a little less productive in other areas. What ever happened to the radar system announced in 2006 that the Italians were financing?

Yemen plans setting up Coastguard branch in Hadramout
[10/يونيو/2010] MUKALLA, June 10 (Saba) The Yemeni Coastguard Authority is planning to set up a branch in the eastern Yemeni province of Hadramout within its efforts to secure the 2000 km long coastline of the country.

The Commander of the Yemeni Coastguard Forces Brigadier General Ali Rasa’a and the governor of Hadramout Salem al-Khanbashi paid Thursday a visit to a site devoted to the establishment of a strategic port in Hadramout. (Read on …)

WaTi

The Navy is warning ships sailing in waters near Yemen that al Qaeda is planning seaborne attacks similar to the 2000 suicide boat bombing of the USS Cole. A warning notice posted on the Web site of the Office of Naval Intelligence and dated March 10 stated that the alert was issued to promote security for shipping companies and other vessels transiting the piracy-plagued region.

“Information suggests that al Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,” the special advisory notice stated.

Yemen Observer: US Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James R Clapper has met president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana’a to discussed the joint cooperation between the United States and Yemen.

Naval Intelligence warns al Qaeda remains interested in attacking ships in the bab al Mendab

Guardian: Saudi security services have arrested more than 100 militants believed to be linked to al-Qaida, the country’s Interior Ministry said today.

The suspects include 47 Saudi nationals, 51 Yemenis, a Somali, an Eritrean and a Bangladeshi, a ministry statement said.

The arrests of the suspects – accused of planning attacks on oil plants and other infrastructure – were carried out over five months.

Many of those detained had come to Saudi Arabia on visas to visit holy sites or by sneaking across its borders. The ministry alleges that they wanted to join up and organise attacks with al-Qaida.

Most of those held were arrested in the southern province of Jazan, near the border with Yemen, according to Saudi media reports.

Explosives belts, apparently intended for use in suicide attacks, were also reported to have been seized.

One of those being held is a Yemeni national described by security officials as a prominent member of al-Qaida, according to Reuters.

Separately, the authorities arrested 12 people from two al-Qaida cells originating across the border in Yemen, where a branch of the terrorist network has established a significant base of operations over the past year.

The two cells were also in the preliminary stages of planning attacks on oil and security facilities in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province, home to the world’s biggest oil refinery.

“The 12 in the two cells were suicide bombers,” security affairs spokesman Mansour al-Turki said. “We have compelling evidence against all of those arrested, that they were plotting terrorist attacks inside the kingdom.”

One India Fox News quoted Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour Al-Turki as saying that the arrest of the alleged plotters not only had prevented the attacks, but broken up a network of Al Qaeda-affiliated radicals that included two suicide bombing cells.

“They were ready but waiting for an order which fortunately didn’t come,” he said of the militants.

While Al-Turki declined to identify which facilities the suspects were allegedly targeting, he said one of the suspects, a Saudi national, was employed by a private Saudi industrial security company responsible for protecting oil sites and other critical infrastructure.

“As an employee, he had access to all of those sites and to current plans for protecting them,” he said.

He did not dispute news reports indicating that the plotters had been exchanging e-mails with a man in Yemen believed to be a senior leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.ccording to reports, members of the two suicide cells had been exchanging coded e-mails about the planned strikes with a man in Yemen whom the accounts called “Abu Hajer.”

One Saudi official said “Abu Hajer” is believed to be a nom de guerre for Said Al Shihri, a Saudi leader of AQAP.

He was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in December 2007 after being held there for six years, and he was taken to a Saudi rehabilitation center from which he disappeared. (ANI)

With renewed focus on al Qaeda threats emanating from Yemen, the US is substantially increasing support to several branches of the Yemeni military. However, Yemen’s military and security forces are often involved in for-profit ventures, on both overt and covert levels. The task of building up Yemen’s Coast Guard demonstrates such difficulties. (Read on …)

In an interview al Shabab spokesman Ali Rage said the Somali terror group intended to provide manpower to Yemen’s al Qaeda group, and that Yemen’s al Qaeda had provided generous support to al Shabab in the past.

Closer coordination between Somalia’s al Shabab and Yemen’s AQAP heightens risk of a coordinated attack on the NATO anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. Currently AQAP is asking for any information on the US vessels in the Gulf including the names and home states of individual American sailors, blueprints, suppliers and operating procedures.

In a missive released yesterday, AQAP said, “Today, the duty of our Muslim nation is to declare Jihad against the infidels and their apostate cooperatives; not only on land but on sea and in the air too. The Crusader warships are present in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and in the Red Sea, and the American surveillance jets occupy the sphere over the Arabian Peninsula..” This echoes an earlier statement from AQ Central calling for naval jihad.

Droves of Yemeni jihaddists and Somalis in Yemen traveled to Somalia when the TFG was battling the ICU. Afterward, the US noted an exodus to back to Yemen. The intersection of piracy, arms smuggling, human smuggling and terrorists has been noted by the UN.

Update: Reuters: AQAP military commander Qasim al-Raymi has fought in Somalia and has written on the need to back Somalia’s revolt… Some others in that founding group had also fought in Somalia. Security experts say Yemenis make up a sizeable part of a foreign contingent that fights with al Shabaab’s Somali rank and file and supplies bomb-making and communications expertise. By one estimate there are about 500 or more foreigners in Shabaab’s ranks, which experts say may number 5,000 or more.

(Read on …)

I’ve always been concerned about that, “naval jihad” against the assorted western navies on anti-piracy ops in the Bab al Mendab. To the extent that Somali and Yemeni al Qaeda are in contact, and the pirates are already paying for intel on where the ships are, the sea is a potential theater of operations as it was in both the USS Cole and Limburg attacks. There was a statement from al Qaeda Central calling for naval jihad in Spring 2008, I think it was. To follow, the latest ramblings from the Yemeni fanatics in response to the first air strike, here at NEFA:

“And lastly, we call upon the proud tribes of Yemen—people of support and victory—and the people of the Arabian Peninsula, to face the crusader campaign and their cooperatives on the peninsula of Muhammad, prayer and peace upon him, and that’s through attacking their military bases, intelligence embassies, and their fleets that exist on the water and land of the Arabian Peninsula; until we stop the continuous massacres on the Muslim countries.”

What happened to Mr. Sovereignty, the President Saleh? The Saudis are shelling the North Yemen and apparently have take up residence in Yemen’s territorial waters. I guess as long as they are on his side, Saleh will let the Saudi forces fight his war and go where ever they want to go. Some think the rebels may outmatch the Saudi forces.

Japan Today: Saudi Arabia imposed a naval blockade on the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen to stem the flow of weapons and fighters to Shiite rebels along its border, a Saudi government adviser and media reports said Tuesday. (Read on …)

What a bloody day.

Border guards kill qat smuggler HARADH, Nov. 04 (Saba) – A Yemeni qat smuggler has been shot dead by Saudi border guards while trying to smuggle qat leaves, which is banned in Saudi Arabia, across the Yemeni-Saudi border,

Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday that Yemen’s security authorities of Hajjah province have delivered the body of the man, 21, to his family.

Though it is not banned in Yemen, qat is strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia, which considers as a narcotic.

On the sea… They are reporting it as a French warship in the Arabic Elaf, and recently Yemen’s official media stated an investigation showed France shot down a civilian airliner although that is improbable.

1 dead as Anti-Piracy Forces attack Yemeni boat

SANA’A, Nov. 04 (Saba) – A Yemeni fishermen has been killed and three others wounded after their boat was attacked by international forces combating piracy off Somalia, the Interior ministry said on Wednesday. (Read on …)